The Quality of Transmission Media, a Determinant of Network Throughput: Nigeria Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) Cable-Market Study

Abstract

Generally, the sight of numerous kinds of cable in the Nigerian IT (Information Technology) market requires immediatealerted attention. The focus of this research paper is to look into the quality of collected samples of Unshielded Twisted Pair(UTP) cable available in Nigeria IT market by measuring some parameters or properties vis-à-vis quality of copper wireused, the wire guage (size), twist rate per meter. According to www.comprehensive.com (2009), While cables may look verysimilar from outside, they can be completely different on the on the inside. It continued to say that, “Construction practices,materials used, quality control and other factors all contribute to the performance of a cable”. The Paper first renders a briefintroduction on Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) cable. It then justifies the reasons why UTP, especially category 6 becomesthe focus of attention out of various other UTP categories and other variety of other Network Transmission Media (cablesthrough which electronic signals travel between a point A and another point B). The research paper also looks into the idealqualities of a good copper-made cable for video, audio and computers. It finally presents a discussion on the analyzedparameters of collected cable samples. The conclusion is a critical summary of the research findings. This research work isnecessary such that buyers of these IT products in Nigeria can be aware of some main considerations when shopping foreveryday cables for video, audio and computers. It is also with the intent that the IT products regulatory bodies such asStandard Organization of Nigeria (SON) can be on the alert for sub-standard cable products.Keywords: Quality, Transmission media, Determinant, Network throughput, Nigeria, UTP Cable Market Study.